Lautrec Moulin Rouge poster sells for $50,000

Original Moulin Rouge poster sells for $50,000

14 Jun 2012, 16:31 GMT+01

A poster advertising the Moulin Rouge, dating from the 19th century, has sold for $50,000 at a Heritage Auctions sale.

The rare lithograph was designed by Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec in 1892, three years after the opening of the legendary Paris cabaret. Lautrec’s name attached to the advertising of the Moulin Rouge had a large part to play in its rising popularity and international fame. The venue reserved a seat for him every night, and often displayed his paintings. He painted a number of the cabaret performers there, and created posters for other Parisian nightclubs.

Montmartre, the home of the Moulin Rouge and the area in which Lautrec lived, was a bohemian hub of artists, writers, and philosophers. Lautrec’s works reflect the colourful, theatrical, elegant, provocative and decadent world of Montmartre, the Moulin Rouge, and late 19th century Paris.

He is known as one of the greatest post-Impressionist painters. At the time, Lautrec’s advertisement posters were among his most famous and popular designs, despite the fact that many of his contemporaries disdained this work at not befitting a great artist.

The poster sold at Heritage on June 13th is called L’Anglais au Moulin Rouge. It depicts a stereotypically sleazy and beige Englishmen talking with colourful and disinterested cabaret dancers.

While Lautrec’s posters sell for seemingly enormous prices, when compared to the sale of his painting La Blanchisseuse for $22.4million in 2005, they are a relatively economical way to own one of his most popular works, with the added bonus of the connection to the fascinating history of the Moulin Rouge.